What makes a start-up succeed is fully understanding the problem you’re trying to solve, or, if you like, what makes you angry,” says Tripty Arya. “If someone is looking at building a proptech business they either need to have experienced the problem as a consumer or be very close to the problem. Without passion you won’t make changes.”

When the giants of an industry start to fail, it should trigger concern. It requires a real analysis of the what and the why along with the understanding of the impact on the market that it serves. We are at such an event with the collapse of Countrywide in the UK.

Real estate needs true investment in to people. Creative people, risk takers, outliers. People that are building a new future for the industry with no strings attached. It is from here that radical, head spinning change will come.

New surveys by smart consultants suggest that 80% of brands will be using bots in one form or the other by 2020. Gartner (specialists in all things tech) predict that 25% of customer service will be done by bots by then. The real estate industry is not immune to these trends and many are asking the question - what should I do?

Financial services and retail industries are obsessed with single customer view. Having a holistic view of your customers and being able to provide them great customer experience – with good reason – you hate having to answer the same questions 1000 times!

The last 15 years has been a relentless drive for better customer experience, increased sales and better customer retention through data. So why is the real estate industry so behind, why do we not share this obsession with consolidating our data and leveraging its value? How can we learn from other’s mistakes and find a new source of competitive advantage?

In the world of investing and portfolios, the term Alpha is used with a lot of gravitas. It often conjures up images of the Wolf of Wall Street. Intelligent men in suits taking home multimillion dollar bonuses with a life exemplified by models and bottles. Alpha is a quality that is aspirational and inspirational. In the economic definition of the word it is what makes someone’s performance exceptional. Alpha is the secret sauce of a winner. It is what makes them stand above the rest.

In portfolio return analysis, all excess returns are attributed to two coefficients an Alpha or a Beta. While beta is the well-established coefficient for risk and volatility which has now been defined as a science, alpha still is just calculated based on the difference between the what was achieved and expected. A bit like a filler. Alpha is what goodwill is on a balance sheet. A number that helps us define the unknown.